The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Second Lecture

[ 1 ] Significantly, the Christian calendar places the feast of Adam and Eve on December 24 and the feast of the Nativity of Jesus Christ on the night of December 24–25. According to the Christian view of the world, this brings the beginning of the world—that is, the beginning of our immediate earthly existence—and the greatest event in earthly history, the event that gives meaning to the Earth’s development, brought into immediate proximity for the reason that this is meant to indicate how the nature of humanity’s relationship to the spiritual universe underwent such a significant transformation through the advent of the Mystery of Golgotha that everything that preceded it—while important for understanding this Mystery itself— but can initially be set aside for immediate Christian consciousness with regard to the reception of the impulses of the will.

[ 2 ] The greatest turning point in the development of earthly existence—as we are well aware—occurred through the Mystery of Golgotha. It stands before the soul of the one who understands it in such a way that, through this understanding, the meaning of Earth’s development is revealed. One might say: If we look at the way the ancients related to world wisdom—as an impulse for humanity itself—in the time before Christ entered into the development of humanity on Earth, and if one compares this attitude of the pre-Christian era with the way Christian consciousness relates to world wisdom as an impulse for human action, then—if one is able to give form to the corresponding thought—one gains a profoundly moving insight.

[ 3 ] One need only recall one figure—the very one we are reminded of when the feast arrives, a feast that, in a sense, is held under the motto: “Et incarnatus est de spiritu sancto ex Maria virgine”—the image, emerging from antiquity, of the virgin Pallas Athena, the goddess of wisdom in ancient Greece, who is the daughter of Zeus himself, and the goddess who was regarded as the goddess of prudence. Zeus, the lord of the flash of lightning, of illuminating light, of the light at work in earthly existence, begets through prudence the virgin Pallas Athena, the guardian of human wisdom before the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 4 ] There is a deeper meaning behind the poetic portrayal of this figure of the virgin Pallas Athena. As the goddess of wisdom, she herself is a virgin. What does this actually mean in a higher sense? What did the Greek mystery leaders mean when they spoke of the virgin Pallas Athena? They meant the wisdom through which human beings act within the historical context of the world. In the fourth epoch, into which Greek cultural development has just entered, this wisdom is born out of that which is not the world itself, but a reflection of the world. Let us understand this well: a reflection of the world, Maya. In the preceding epochs, the wisdom of the mystery priests had not been presented as a virginal power, because as human wisdom in the first, second, and third post-Atlantean epochs, it was always imbued with the ancient atavistic power of clairvoyance. It was not until the fourth post-Atlantean epoch that the possibility arose to know something simply by looking at that which is not driven by the forces underlying atavistic clairvoyance—by the emotions, the passions, all that glows like fire within the human being—but rather by the virginal reflection of the world, uninfluenced by atavistic clairvoyance. The wisdom referred to when her representative is depicted—Pallas Athena—originates from Maya.

[ 5 ] Pallas Athena, too, is a Maja, a Maria; but Pallas Athena is that Maja who, from within herself, still reflects wisdom—who, from within herself, reveals wisdom to humankind. The great advance lies in the fact that this very same Maja, this very same Mary, is fertilized by the cosmos, and a new wisdom is now born. Pallas Athena was the representative of wisdom. The Christ impulse is the son of Maja, of Mary, the virginal representative of wisdom, and of the cosmic-divine, the cosmic-intelligent power of the worlds. Therefore, the ancient wisdom, as represented by Pallas Athena, was well suited to analyze and comprehend the world from the mineral realm up to the plant realm, but was not yet capable of grasping human beings themselves, of comprehending human beings in their own personalities.

[ 6 ] If one wished to understand the human being in terms of his or her personality at that time, it was possible to do so within the Mysteries, but one then had to attain atavistic clairvoyance within the Mysteries. What is meant by Pallas Athena—the virginal representative of wisdom—signifies a beginning that was, as such, suited to comprehending the sphere of the earthly world. But it was only through the advent of the Mystery of Golgotha—only through the union of the divine, intelligent power of love with the power of Maya, with the mirror image of the world—that the God-Man was set before human evolution: the God who is no longer accessible only by transcending the physical plane, but the God whose very essence can be found on the physical plane itself. The progress in human evolution referred to by the Christmas Mystery presents itself to the human soul when one combines the true legend of Pallas Athena with all that can be grasped in its true form regarding the nature of the virginal Maya, from which the Christ impulse for Earth’s evolution arises.

[ 7 ] In connection with such insights into human affairs, with such demands on the impulses of the human will as we have discussed in order to grasp the mystery of Christmas, it is fitting for our time—a time so serious, a time for which this is so urgently needed—to gain perspectives that lie within the spirit of the thirty-three-year cycle mentioned yesterday. Just as the ancients sought to unravel the mysteries of the stars and determined from their constellations what they wished to accomplish here on Earth, so too should humanity become aware that it must now enter an age that can only bring hardship, misery, and misfortune to the people of Earth unless they resolve to read the constellations of the stars of time in the course of human history. With what the materialistic age is so proud of, nothing more will be achieved in earthly existence in the future than what has already been achieved in this catastrophic time. Humanity must find the courage to make such a vow to its own soul as a sacred Christmas vow: to turn its gaze toward the spiritual truths that are pressing their way into our time. Our time must find the courage, unhindered by timidity, to look into what is. Humanity must acquire a new sense of truth if it wishes to follow once more in the footsteps of the One whose birth it celebrates at Christmas—but who is not understood unless his words are grasped deeply enough: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

[ 8 ] This means that, in such serious times, one should not merely feel the desire to deliver soothing sermons about the Festival of Peace—as is certainly being done from many pulpits these days—but rather that, in serious times, one should at least be able to grasp the idea of just how uncreative our age actually is. For the great thing that seeks to enter into our time can only be served if people develop creative power within their own souls. Let us consider this for a moment: Certainly, the Mystery of Golgotha entered human evolution at the beginning of our era; but might it not have passed without a trace if the people of that time had not possessed creative power within their own souls to grasp it, to translate it into concepts and ideas, and to speak of it at all? Viewed from the outside, a figure described in the Gospels was born in an obscure province of the Roman Empire. The people of that time possessed the creative power to grasp what lived within this figure. This is what is required when the greatest divine forces unite with human history: that people be able to summon within themselves the will to creative power. That is why the question should have been raised yesterday: In what way were the 19th and 20th centuries—those arrogant centuries—capable of developing the creative power necessary to understand what humanity has now recognized for centuries as the essence of the idea of salvation?

[ 9 ] Let us add—we could cite hundreds and thousands of examples—a few more voices from the 19th century regarding how it sought to speak of Christ Jesus. I said that I wanted to cite the best, the most profound thinkers, to show what lay in their souls. It is not so much my intention to answer the question: What influence do people like those whose voices I have cited to you regarding Christ Jesus have? — but rather, it is my intention to show how the times affect the best among us. For these are the ideas that dominate the minds of the most honest people in particular. The others do speak of Jesus Christ, but without ever truly coming close to the impulse of truth, even in their feelings. Let us add a few more points.

[ 10 ] Back in the 19th century, when people began to develop free-thinking ideas, one of those who tried—to the point of pathological profundity—to absorb these new ideas into his mind was Kar] Gutzkow. In his work *Wally, the Doubting Woman*, he recorded, more or less, the ideas that came to him regarding Jesus Christ:

[ 11 ] “Jesus was a Jew. He had no intention of founding a new religion. He spoke neither of abolishing nor of expanding Judaism. ... Nor did Jesus introduce a single new teaching. ... What, then, remained in Jesus’ message? A moral code that, while possessing a ennobling power, never gave—nor sought to give—anything more than: authentic Judaism. Jesus’ moral code always remained closely aligned with the customs of the ceremonial law and is characterized solely by the fact that it demanded inner attitudes corresponding to the outward rites. Jesus taught: “Love your neighbor as yourself!” Moses had already taught this; but the founder of a new religion had to say: “Love your neighbor more than yourself.” This is how Karl Gutzkow corrects the Christ Jesus! “From this one concludes that Jesus was a figure who belonged solely to history, but by no means to religion or philosophy.”

[ 12 ] An even more distinctive voice—because it is a voice that has emerged from the psychology of our time—is the following. It is a summary of the content of the book *Jesus: A Comparative Psychopathological Study* by Emil Rasmussen, a Danish work. The content can be summarized as follows:

[ 13 ] “Neither the apostles nor the three Synoptic Gospels regarded Jesus as God. He himself considered himself to be the ‘Son of Man’ foretold in Daniel 7:13 and believed—without ever claiming to be the Messiah—that he was fulfilling some of the prophecies that were particularly important to him. The Nazarene belongs to the category of prophets. Religious heroes or heralds—also known as prophets—are deviations from the normal type of the human race. For their inner experiences can be compared, in degree and nature, only to the paroxysms of an epileptic or a hysterical-epileptic. The “men of God” present a clinical picture that the psychiatrist is able to diagnose precisely as epileptic mental illness; the stigmata are: hallucinations or visual illusions, fits of rage, convulsive merriment, absence of consciousness (absence seizures), stupor, a twilight state or dreamlike subconsciousness, speech disorders, delirium, melancholy, sudden mood swings, exaggerated religiosity, the belief that one must suffer for others and reform the world, delusions of grandeur, obsessive thoughts, the delusion of fictional genealogies, vagabond-like restlessness, and an abnormal sex life, whether characterized by debauchery or asceticism. A series of outstanding religious visionaries from ancient and modern times—such as Ezekiel, Paul, Muhammad, Søren Kierkegaard, and so on, this can be put to the test, and once again common characteristics can be identified, such as terrible threats and curses, the manifold forms and veils of the sense of cruelty, paroxysms of rage, imagined suffering for humanity, asceticism, the idea of resurrection, and other traits.

[ 14 ] Jesus also exhibits all these symptoms observed in the ancient and modern prophets: He experiences unparalleled anxiety, falls into a frenzy during the cleansing of the temple, suffers from hallucinations, reveals in his contradictory character an excessive sense of self and an abnormal sensuality, is consumed by the delusion that he is suffering for humanity and can atone for it, and—through his violence, instability, and the increasing narrowing of his mind—which no longer absorbs or processes new ideas—provides further confirmation of his elective affinity with the prophetic archetype, which has remained unchanged throughout all ages and under all skies. His ethics, which are based on hating the family, living on alms, and relying on faith as the sole source of salvation, have not been accepted by humanity. If one understands “genius” to mean a creator of the new, then one must also abandon this view with regard to Jesus, since, as scientific research has established, he is merely an imitator in both the content and form of his teachings. His promise—which brought him worldwide triumph, namely his second coming—has failed completely. Jesus was a man worthy of deep sorrow, who, in his tragic, magnificent fate, deserves our heartfelt compassion.”

[ 15 ] Such voices could be multiplied a hundredfold, a thousandfold, and the fact that they can be presented in this way is not the essential point. The essential point is something entirely different, namely that people who speak this way are speaking truly and correctly in the sense of contemporary science, and that from the standpoint of contemporary science, one cannot speak otherwise if one is honest and sincere; and that one must ask oneself: Do we have enough courage and the will to will in order to hold up to this science the mirror that only spiritual science can hold up? — Those cowardly compromises, which are made time and again, day after day, a hundred times over, between materialistic science and religious traditions—these are the dishonest ones; these are the transgressions against that which people claim to celebrate in the Christmas Mystery and the Easter Mystery. That is what is at stake.

[ 16 ] There is currently an either/or situation: either a commitment to the spiritual life, or a continuation of the kind of life that led to the events of 1914–17 and so on. What underlies this, each person must allow to arise within their own heart as their own recognition of Christ—and likewise allow the will to will to arise, the impulse toward courage, not to seek any kind of salvation through partial compromises, but to walk straight ahead on the path that must be walked: the path that must be shown through the recognition of humanity’s spiritual life. To draw concrete inspiration from something like the Christmas Mystery must be connected to this will.

[ 17 ] What has been said about the thirty-three-year cycle of events — just as the realization that, under certain conditions, oxygen and hydrogen combine, and that water cannot be recognized except through electrolysis, which chemically examines the behavior of oxygen and hydrogen—so, too, should the awareness arise that social laws can only be discovered if one is able to discern such constellations in the course of time. Thinking only of the present day, seeing only what lies immediately around us—this is what humanity has gradually come to regard as beneficial over the last four centuries. But to recognize the unfolding of events in such a way that one says to oneself: “What is happening now will resurface in thirty-three years; it is my duty to act in the present under the responsibility that springs from this idea”—this is what must henceforth be demanded of those who wish to intervene in life from any perspective of life.

[ 18 ] Our generation should completely break the habit of parroting the old clichés about Christmas. The Romans found the courage—since they had designated a god for war—Janus—to close the Temple of Janus only when there was peace. During the reign of Numa Pompilius, when it was closed entirely, it was closed only twice over the entire 724 years until the reign of Emperor Augustus. But the Romans had the courage to distinguish between war and peace in their service to one of the supreme gods. One might ask whether our present age would muster the same courage—perhaps to close the places of peace, the sites meant to serve peace, at a time when the whole world is engulfed in war? One could speak of courage only if there were so much creative power in the present that one could perceive a genuine difference in the places where peace is spoken of, especially when this occurs in times such as the present.

[ 19 ] It is indeed very instructive to look back in light of the thirty-three-year cycle: the catastrophic events that continue to shape our lives today began in 1914. I have already cited several events connected with the three- to four-year period of catastrophic events following the thirty-three-year cycle. One could cite many more. One need only recall that thirty-three years before 1914—that is, in 1881—Alexander II ascended to the throne in St. Petersburg, the very tsar under whom the persecutions began in the Baltic provinces, the very tsar who is the embodiment of so much European misfortune. One could also look to more internal events—and I do not mean “internal” in a spiritual sense. If you study the role that Gambetta himself played in 1881 during his two-month presidency at that time, you will find in it the very signature of what was brewing at the very moment these catastrophic events broke out and what now, as I have already said here, finds its symptomatic expression in the mood between northern and southern Russia, in the unleashing of Russian-Ukrainian hostility—a symptom that shines with far greater significance, when one considers the events that are unfolding, than anything that people today, in their complacency, are so eager to accept as important events.

[ 20 ] Many examples could be cited in this way. The question arises: How should a person proceed when faced with critical junctures in order to reach decisions that may bear fruit thirty-three years later? One need only try, under the influence of such an idea, to understand the events that took place thirty-three years ago, and from that true understanding will spring what one must do in the present: then, in thirty-three years, it will be able to bear fruit in a worthy manner, to rise again. That such an endeavor is in vain can only be claimed once it has actually happened. But where has it happened? Where in exoteric life today is the evolution of the world viewed according to its inner laws? Official representatives of what is often called Christianity today particularly love to object, time and again, to anthroposophically oriented spiritual science, arguing that while revelations from the spiritual world were possible in Christ’s time, “the fateful Gnosticism” must not reappear. Such things must not be interpreted with leniency. That these people mean well is something that, unfortunately, all too often appears again and again even in our own circles as a fateful phrase. Facing the truth head-on—that is what should really be the focus. And above all, we must have the will and the courage to take a stand against everything that, out of timidity, so easily asserts itself against spiritual science today.

[ 21 ] There is one aspect of spiritual science that people particularly dislike. That is: that it presents concrete, real spiritual facts; that it speaks of the spiritual worlds as real spiritual facts. How often, in contrast, do we hear people say: “Yes, that’s hard to understand; it’s hard to get a handle on it.” — Such talk may still be understandable coming from someone who, under the influence of the current school system, has not been able to learn how to think, but it must be incomprehensible coming from those who claim to be taken seriously as scientists at all. Admittedly, little by little, something has come to be regarded as science that places the most minimal demands on human thinking. Today, one can be a college graduate with all sorts of degrees and yet be unable to grasp even the simplest things with one’s intellect, growing weary at once when real thinking is required. People today increasingly prefer it when there is vague, watered-down talk about all sorts of general intellectual matters, pan-idealism, and all that sort of thing. This spares one the effort of having to grapple with concrete spiritual facts. Spiritual science, however, must make demands on those who come to it. There must be a willingness to exert one’s mind a little more than is necessary to further dilute general platitudes about pan-idealism and the like with one’s watered-down emotional sentiment. It is no longer the time to revel in all manner of “pan-” concepts and all manner of general, sentimental platitudes. The time has come today to seriously confront concrete spiritual facts. Now is the time to summon the will to truly think. That is why words must be spoken at the beginning of this Christmas Eve service that also sound serious in our present age. For the more we have the will to do this in a serious, dignified, and forceful manner, the more we will connect our souls with what has entered into the development of the Earth as the Christ impulse.

[ 22 ] For millennia, humanity has regarded space as something to be revered—not the space on Earth, but the space of the heavens. It has turned its gaze upward toward the constellations to read in the stars what is to happen here on Earth. Humanity knew this: The dead read—and must read—in the stars; the dead must play a part in earthly events. — Thus, human beings must also learn to read that scripture which the dead must read ceaselessly. What happens here on Earth was viewed in those ancient times before the Mystery of Golgotha in such a way that people would say: “Up there, the Sun, Moon, and Aries are aligned; or the Sun, Moon, and Taurus; or the Sun, Moon, and Gemini; or Gemini and Venus, or the like, in such a constellation.” It is a sign that certain impulses are coming in from the cosmos. When these impulses are present, then this or that particular action must be taken; for what happens here takes place within time, and time provides the Maya; time provides the course of the great illusion. — In this sense, this illusion lasted only until the Mystery of Golgotha. Out of this Maya, the Christ impulse was born, as I discussed at the beginning; out of the virginal Maya came that which is no longer fertilized by old, atavistic clairvoyance, that which stands in direct opposition to the world powers untouched by the Earth.

[ 23 ] The veneration of that which passes with time, the recognition of that which passes with time, becomes a duty, just as in ancient times it was considered a duty to observe the constellations in space. The ancient magician, whose image appeared before the infant in the manger, looked up at the gold of the heavens, at the stars, and said to himself: Just as the stars are arranged, so too can one read within them what is to happen here on Earth; for what is written in the stars is the result of the past. In the gold of the stars lies what the Ancient of Days, with his hosts, has written throughout the entire past—that it may come to pass in the present. The present must carry out what can be seen in the gold of the stars; the present, which passes away the very moment it comes into being. The present is the ceaselessly blazing fire, represented by incense; the present in the imagery of incense. And within the present, fertilized by the past, the future rests under the imagery of myrrh.

[ 24 ] The secrets of the ancient magicians lay in how the past, present, and future are interconnected. But within this past, present, and future, they saw the veil of Maya, the veil of Pallas Athena herself, which merely reflected the constellations of the stars. And those three magi who appeared before the manger understood that from the essence of time—that which is the reflection of the constellations—from the Maya of time, something new must emerge, to which one must bring the past, the present, and the future: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Insight into the divine-spiritual: gold; the act of sacrifice, human virtue: frankincense; the union of the human soul with the eternal, the immortal: myrrh.

[ 25 ] The divide between the time before the Mystery of Golgotha and the time after it is so immense that one can say: the Most Holy, which existed before, descended, united itself in love with Maya, and gave birth to the impulse that is to continue to sustain the development of the Earth—Christ Jesus. To understand Christ Jesus—how divine-cosmic love received Christ from the womb of Maja—means to understand a world god who transcends all those distinctions that necessarily arise from gazing upon mere celestial constellations. The constellation of stars is different for one spot on Earth than for another. The ancient legends also depict how the initiated heroes travel about, and how the most diverse regions of the Earth have the most varied perspectives on the gods. Thus, that which originates from space as worthy of veneration passes into time. Then time is the same for all human children of the earth; then there is a universal God—a God whom no particular community has the right to claim for itself, no human community may claim to act in his name for its own interests, but only the community of all humanity.

[ 26 ] These are thoughts through which we can turn our souls this Christmas toward an understanding of the saying “Et incarnatus est de spiritu sancto ex Maria virgine”: “And it was incarnated by the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary.” ” The voices of those who live here in physical bodies are joined by the voices of those who are passing through the gate of death at this time—those who know how the constellations of time are connected in the modern sense, just as the constellations of space were connected in the ancient sense.

[ 27 ] To the many things that could be said to bridge the gap to the souls living between death and a new birth, let this also be added: for in those thoughts that are linked to the Mystery of Golgotha, the so-called living and the so-called dead understand one another best of all. For Christ truly descended from heaven to earth, and since then must be sought on earth. Here, human beings come to know their own mystery within the physical body, just as Christ Himself, in His physical body, sought His mission on earth. The dead look down from the spirit realm upon what they experienced here as the foundation for their impulses toward the Mystery of Golgotha. Souls living here on the physical plane and souls living on the spiritual plane understand one another best in all that is connected to the Mystery of Golgotha. But connected to the Mystery of Golgotha is not only that which speaks of this Mystery of Golgotha at every opportunity, but everything that is sought in the spirit of the words: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” The One whose birth we celebrate in the glow of the Christmas candles is truly the One who was not meant to reveal Himself just once, only to then conveniently provide a basis for those who wish to parrot His words—those who do not want to learn anything new and reject everything new—but rather the One who alone may be celebrated in the glow of the Christmas candles, is the One who wished to reveal Himself to humanity throughout the time that follows the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 28 ] If, during this time, amid the signs that appear so meaningfully on the spiritual horizon today, enough people resolve to understand Christ Jesus, then this is a Christmas thought—a thought that sanctifies the night—which will rise again in a good way after thirty-three years and will live on as a force for humanity from the present time until His Resurrection. Let us embrace strong, courageous, and wisdom-filled Christmas thoughts, and let us imbue ourselves with them for this Holy Night; then we will live through it in a worthy manner.

[ 29 ] That is what I would like to convey to your souls today as a Christmas greeting. And I know that this Christmas greeting is in keeping with the spirit of that impulse, which may be celebrated truly and worthily only under the light of the Christmas lights.